Spent yesterday running around to provision (bread, sandwich stuff, fresh produce, paper goods….& wine!) and visiting the marina in Maryland where we will put Dot Calm for the winter. Wanted to see the place and meet the people — and we were quite pleased. Left an arm’s length list of things we want done over the winter and have our fingers crossed that all will go well. It’s a long way off so I will definitely not start worrying about it ahead of time. Not quite sure if Cliff is in the same place.
We left National Harbor mid-morning for the easy cruise to Ocaquon Harbor Marina. Yesterday Washington DC got a deluge….nearly 2 1/2 inches of rain in one hour. A nice fresh water rinse for the boat, but we feared that it would also sweep lots of tree branches and other debris into the Potomac. Happily, that was not the case. I think that the rain and wind were so ferocious, that most debris was whisked downstream to the Chesapeake.
At any rate, we headed out to sparkling water, fresh (and cool!) breezes, bright skies, fluffy clouds and a pretty much empty river. The Potomac is 150 miles long — we were told this was the fourth longest river in the U.S. which is completely, utterly, positively NOT true. But it’s long in terms of taking it at 12-15mph! We are making three stops before we reach the Chesapeake…..which is 200 miles long with 11,684 miles of shoreline. You can understand how people spend years exploring it.
Today we will moor within a couple of miles of Belmont Bay Marina where we stayed on our way up the Potomac to Washington DC. Occaquan Harbor Marina is a bit closer to the old town – tho’ still an Uber ride away. The town has maintained its turn of the century charm with many original buildings and new ones that match the architecture wonderfully. We walked to a shady park at the end of the town’s main street and crossed a bridge to get a closer look at the river, a glimpse of white water rapids above and a view of a smallish lovely waterfall on the far side of the river. Learned that Ocaquan is the Algonquin Indian word for “end of the water” which the rapids made quite apparent.
It is nice to be “back on the water.” We enjoyed our interlude in California, of course, but the quiet rhythm of our boating life is quite addicting. Morning planning and navigation discussion along with a couple cups of coffee is a great way to start each day. The views from the bridge deck are amazing. Houses along the shore (most too far away to get a decent photo), osprey pairs urging their nearly fully grown offspring to take flight, seagulls, terns, cormorants and an occasional big splash of a fish (I am sure a GIANT one) that we’re not quite quick enough to see fill the day. There is “work” to be done as well: Keeping an eye out for floating logs, looking for the next navigational markers and keeping an eye on the depth finder. And writing the blog:-)
Hope you are enjoying it!